Storage vMotion (SVM) in vCenter 2.5

Storage vMotion in vCenter 2.5

Storage vMotion was introduced in VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3.5Storage VMotion (SVM) enables live migration of virtual machine disks from one datastore to another with no disruption or downtime. Just as VMware VMotion allows IT administrators to minimize service disruption due to planned server downtime, Storage VMotion allows them to minimize disruption by reducing the planned storage downtime previously required for rebalancing or retiring storage arrays. Storage VMotion simplifies array migration and upgrade tasks, and reduces I/O bottlenecks by moving virtual machines while the VM remains up and running. It provides a hot migration of the storage location on which the vmhome resides.

SVM can only be done via the Remote Command Line Interface (RCLI), vSphere Command-Line Interface (vCLI) or PowerCLI. For this guide I will only illustrate the PowerCLI method.

The assumption will be that you already have PowerCLI installed.

Start a PowerCLI session.

Connect to the vCenter you are going to do the SVM on.

[vSphere PowerCLI] C:\> Connect-VIServer <vCenter_server_name>

When prompted log in to vCenter just as you would if you were using the VIClient.

Run the following command substituting the VM that you want to move and the datastore you want to move it to.

> Get-VM <VM_To_Move> | Move-VM -Datastore <Datastore_to_move_to>

You will see the progress bar in the PowerCLI window as well as the VIClient as noted above.

If you add the parameter –RunAsync at the end of the command, it will not wait for the progress to complete and will allow you to move on to another task immediately.

> Get-VM <VM_To_Move> | Move-VM -Datastore <Datastore_to_move_to> -RunAsync
I am glad that this has been added to the GUI for all later releases of vSphere, but at my day job this is what I have to work with.